Guru Quotes

“Live quietly in the moment and see the beauty of all before you. The future will take care of itself......”
― Yogananda, Autobiography of a Yogi

“I keep remembering one of my Guru's teachings about happiness. She says that people universally tend to think that happiness is a stroke of luck, something that will maybe descend upon you like fine weather if you're fortunate enough. But that's not how happiness works. Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it, you must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it. If you don't you will eat away your innate contentment. It's easy enough to pray when you're in distress but continuing to pray even when your crisis has passed is like a sealing process, helping your soul hold tight to its good attainments.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love

“A true teacher would never tell you what to do. But he would give you the knowledge with which you could decide what would be best for you to do.”
― Christopher Pike, Sati

“Question like a child, reason like an adult, and write like a sage.”
― Criss Jami, Healology

“Let each man take the path according to his capacity, understanding and temperament. His true guru will meet him along that path.”
― Sivananda

“No one and nothing outside of you can give you salvation, or free you from the misery. You have to light your own lamp. You have to know the miniature universe that you yourself are.”
― Banani Ray, Awakening Inner Guru

“Aku selalu bermimpi
matahari melahirkan para guru
dan guru melahirkan para matahari...”
― Abdurahman Faiz, Guru Matahari

“If you can show people how to build castles, make sure you do not neglect building and nurturing your own.”
― Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

“Anak-anak muda jaman sekarang itu lucu dan agak susah dimengerti. Mereka cukup bersemangat membuat berbagai macam proposal untuk kegiatan organisasi yang mereka ikuti. Tapi proposal hidup yang berisi visi dan strateginya meraih mimpi, justru lupa mereka buat sendiri.”
― Lenang Manggala, Founder Gerakan Menulis Buku Indonesia

“The Stone of Guilt in the River of the Mind, the block in the flow of intelligence.
~ Paramahamsa Nithyananda”
― Paramahamsa Nithyananda, Living Enlightenment

“YOU are your own guru. YOU are your own soul mate. YOU are powerful. Take the reigns and drive your carriage home to love.”
― Amy Leigh Mercree

“Mixing old wine with new wine is stupidity, but mixing old wisdom with new wisdom is maturity.”
― Amit Kalantri, Wealth of Words

“A wise man's goal shouldn't be to say something profound, but to say something useful.”
― Criss Jami, Healology

“Nilai akhir dari proses pendidikan, sejatinya terrekapitulasi dari keberhasilannya menciptakan perubahan pada dirinya dan lingkungan. Itulah fungsi daripada pendidikan yang sesungguhnya.”
― Lenang Manggala, Founder Gerakan Menulis Buku Indonesia

“Those who know the truth are so intoxicated that they don’t bother lecturing about it to others.
Those who know nothing talk about it all the time.”
― Abhaidev, Anant

“Those who know the truth are so intoxicated that they don’t bother lecturing about it to others.”
― Abhaidev, Anant

“In times of tragedies, our duty is to lend a helping hand to those in grief and thus light lamps of kindness and compassion.”
― Amma Sri Mata Amritanandamayi

“There are no gurus of love.
There is no mantra to make love.”
― Santosh Kalwar, An Aphrodisiac

“Be Good-Do Good-Be One”
― Kirpal Singh

“I keep hearing about a spiritual awakening, but I feel what we need instead, is a human one. It would be wonderful and empowering to become free from the disillusionment and nonsense being sold to us from gurus for centuries.”
― Steve Maraboli, Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience

“The relationship between apprentice and mentor is one of the most beautiful and most sacred relationships. In sharing his wisdom with his apprentice, the mentor discovers even more wisdom to share.”
― Charbel Tadros

“100% of a Guru’s marketing plan depends on you holding the belief that you are not enough; that you were created less equipped than necessary to fulfill your purpose. What if you let go of that belief and connected with the truth of your innate power to change and shape your life? You ARE enough. You CAN change and shape your own life. Anyone who tells you different is simply lying. Your life has immeasurable potentiality for greatness; act accordingly.”
― Steve Maraboli, Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience

“There are more fake gurus and false teachers in this world than the number of stars in the visible universe. Don’t confuse power-driven, self-centered people with true mentors. A genuine spiritual master will not direct your attention to himself or herself and will not expect absolute obedience or utter admiration from you, but instead will help you to appreciate and admire your inner self. True mentors are as transparent as glass. They let the Light of God pass through them.” —Shams Tabrizi”
― Shams Tabrizi,

“Mephistopheles' contentious, often ambiguous relationship to Faustus is a reference to tantra just as it is to alchemy. It resembles the shifting tactics of a guru who varies his approach to his pupil in order to dissolve his resistances and prepare him for wider states of consciousness. Both Faustus and the tantric aspirant stimulate and indulge their senses under the guidance of their teachers who encourage them to have sexual encounters with women in their dreams. Both work with magical diagrams or yantras, exhibit extraordinary will, "fly" on visionary journeys, acquire powers of teleportation, invisibility, prophecy, and healing, and have ritual intercourse with women whom they visualize as goddesses. The tantrist [sic] is said to become omniscient as a result of his sacred "marriage," and Faustus produces an omniscient child in his union with the visualized Helen, or Sophia.”
― Ramona Fradon, The Gnostic Faustus

“It could be said that we become so much a stranger that we disappear and find ourselves reborn in the midst of humanity which is quite a paradox.”
― Donna Goddard, Love s Longing

“Silence is the greatest master teacher. It says nothing, yet teaches everything.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson, These Words Pour Like Rain

“One has to imagine a setting in a forest sometime as far back as 2000 BCE or earlier, where a sage, who has spent decades perhaps in the search for truth and wisdom, shares thoughts, most often elliptically, with a group of students eager to begin their own journey in unravelling the mysteries of life. The conversation is not in the form of a formal dialogue, but through parable and suggestion, story and allusion, or statements of deep penetrative insight into what constitutes the transcendent reality underlying our lives and this universe. What is significant is that while obviously having the role of a mentor, the guru is open to questions being asked and instead of delivering a monologue from a pedestal, is willing to have a conversation which is guided as much by what the guru has to say as by what is being asked by the shishya. Significant too is that what the sage says is not in the nature of a command, but more in the format of an insight, inviting discussion and interrogation. Considering the fact that for many Hindus (including Adi Shankaracharya), even though the Upanishads are seen as shruti or revealed texts, the fact that they were dialogic, and not prescriptive, set the tone for the further evolution of Hinduism itself.
Other foundational texts of Hinduism carry forward this dialogic tradition. One of these is the Brahma Sutra by Badarayana written sometime around 450 BCE. In Indian tradition, Badarayana is identified with the legendary Vyasa who compiled the Vedas. The Brahma Sutra is known by many names—Nyaya Prasthana, because it puts the teachings of the Upanishads in a structured order; Vedanta Sutra, since it is a text on the Vedanta; Sariraka Sutra, since it deals with the nature and evolution of the embodied soul; and Uttara Mimamsa Sutra, since it deals with the final section of the Vedas, unlike the Purva Mimamsa which deals with the earlier sections.”
― Pavan K. Varma, The Great Hindu Civilisation: Achievement, Neglect, Bias and the Way Forward

“It is good to light people's paths and guide them, but it is much, much better to teach them to create their own light and walk their own path by their own light, thus completely eliminating their dependence on you!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan

“There was a time I looked in the mirror and saw a stranger.

I had walked through the fire of alcohol addiction.
I had sat in the silence of depression.
I had tasted the sharp loneliness that hides behind a smile.

And yet — I did not give up.

We endure pain — and that pain becomes our teacher.

They say a Guru is not one who speaks from books,
but one who has lived what they teach.
Who has stumbled through the dark, and still chooses the path to light.

Today, as a coach, I don’t offer perfection.
I offer presence. I offer truth. I offer the strength that comes from having broken and rebuilt.

If you’re walking through something heavy, I hope this reminds you:
You are not broken. You are becoming.
And your story isn’t over.”
― Avijeet Das

“*Kenangan Dari Koridor Rindu*

Dulu, di bangku ingatan
Ada sepasang tangan saling menggenggam harapan.
Angan yang berlompatan
serupa putih debu kapur
di atas papan tulis.
Mimpiku, mimpimu bertemu
Di dalam lembar-lembar buku.

Langkah yang berjalan tergesa
sepanjang lorong penghubung waktu.
Dari perpustakaan
dan ruang-ruang kelas,
hingga kantin, uks dan ruang guru.
Canda dan tawa kita bergema sepanjang koridor rindu.
Ada kebahagiaan tertinggal di sana seperti hendak kembali padamu.

Ada goresan sejarah yang kita tulis,
Romansa percintaan purba menyisakan ratap tangis.
Kisah cinta yang berakhir tragis: Marie Josephine dan Raja Louis.
Kenangan yang akrab menyapa kita, lewat tutur kata pak guru tua
tegak berdiri di depan kelas
dengan penuh wibawa.

Ada juga kisah lain yang kita baca: sebuah penghargaan tanda cinta piala citra untuk pelajaran fisika.
Semua yang menempa kita
demi mengejar mimpi:
Pelajaran matematika
yang kau benci,
Atau guru biologi tampan
yang diam-diam kau kagumi.

Apa yang masih tertinggal dari senyum bapak dan ibu guru
Suara yang akrab menyapa kita
dari masa lalu.
Ingatan yang selamanya belia menolak menjadi tua.
Puisi yang tak akan lekang
oleh matahari garang di tanah lapang.

Sebuah ode pujian yang kita nyanyikan dengan khidmat:
"Terpujilah wahai engkau,
Ibu Bapak Guru...
Namamu akan selalu hidup
dalam sanubariku..."

Sekiranya saja,
masih cukup waktu kita,
untuk menyapa mereka hari ini.
Para pahlawan tanpa tanda jasa itu.
Tak terkira banyaknya hutang rasa yang tersimpan di dada.
Rasa terima kasih
dan ucapan syukur
yang tulus terulur
dari lubuk sanubari;

Untuk setiap ilmu yang mereka beri,
setiap pengetahuan yang mereka bagi,
biarlah doa jadi persembahan suci:
Semoga Tuhan selalu melindungi
dan memberkahi bapak-ibu guru
yang kita cintai.

Oktober 2025”
― Titon Rahmawan